Global warming. Upon hearing the simple phrase, the younger generation can already picture the familiar cartoon visual of melting ice caps and homeless polar bears. We think of numerous cars lined up in traffic, each emitting dirty, gray smoke to represent the harm of greenhouse gases. The usual depiction of leaking offshore oil rigs and the destruction of fossil fuel mining.
The scientific consensus on the urgency of our world’s climate crisis has seeped into the nation’s education system, resulting in today’s young adults growing up deeply immersed in it. From being first warned about carbon dioxide emissions in elementary school, Millennials and Generation Z have grown up with a climate consciousness and are now using it to transform the California workforce.
Corinne Nicholson is a rising junior at the University of California, Davis studying environmental engineering. Nicholson, with experience in environmental justice and climate education, is currently working to minimize harmful human impacts on watersheds through nutrient recovery work in wastewater lagoon systems.
“I’d say that Gen-Z definitely acknowledges climate change as a fact, which is helpful because once you’re there, you can focus on solutions. I always grew up knowing that global warming was a thing…This was helpful because it gave me an unhindered view that we just need to fix it without first having to believe it’s real,” Nicholson said.
Defined as the generation roughly between the ages of 11 and 27, Gen-Z is known as the first digital natives due to the rise of the internet and social media during their upbringing. Today, many are in a unique position. Gen-Zers have recognized “climate change” and “global warming” as household terms and topics of discussion nearly their whole life, unlike older generations.
Global warming refers to the gradual increase in the earth’s temperature mainly due to human activities such as burning fossil fuels, which emit greenhouse gases that trap heat.
California’s Fourth Climate Change Assessment from 2018 projected that by the year 2100, the state’s average annual maximum daily temperature will increase by 8.8°F if today’s greenhouse gas emissions levels are not curtailed. If emissions continue to rise, the average area burned in extreme wildfires is expected to increase by 77% by 2100. The projected sea level rise of 50 cm by 2050 could result in $17.9 billion of flood damage to residential and commercial buildings statewide. Water shortages, wildfire frequency, heat-related deaths, and electricity demand are also predicted to increase.
Such existential concerns are front of mind for young people around the globe. More than four in 10 Gen-Zers in 22 countries identified climate change as the “most important issue facing the world,” with pollution following at 36%, according to a 2019 Amnesty International survey. Even throughout the pandemic, 84% of 16- to 25-year-olds in 10 nations said they were consistently worried and anxious about climate change” in a 2021 study about climate anxiety in children and young people published in Lancet Planetary Health.
“I want you to act as if your house is on fire. Because it is,” Greta Thunberg said, Swedish climate change activist known for challenging world leaders to mitigate environmental injustice
Nicholson added, “I’d say that younger generations are probably more climate-focused because if we want to continue to live the lifestyle we do, things need to change.”
Pew Research Center found that younger generations are the most supportive of phasing out fossil fuels and gas-powered vehicles in favor of alternative energy, while older generations generally prioritize using a mix of fossil fuels and renewables instead of completely phasing them out.
While nearly two-thirds of Americans oppose phasing out fossil fuels, Gen-Z is the most supportive of giving them up entirely (43%) more than Millennials, Gen-X, and Baby Boomers.
Since taking office, President Biden has emphasized his administration’s efforts to fight climate change, calling it a profound crisis one day after Biden was inaugurated in January of 2021 in an announcement that the United States planned to rejoin Paris Agreement, an international treaty signed by nearly 200 nations with the goal of keeping global average temperatures no more than 2 degrees Celsius more than pre-industrial levels.
In more recent efforts, the White House swore in the first class of the Biden administration’s federal American Climate Corps in June. Inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps, Americorps, and the Peace Corps, the Climate Corps aims to empower the new generation to tackle climate change and environmental injustice in the workforce.
In January of 2021, President Biden signed executive actions tackling climate change, creating jobs, and restoring scientific integrity.
“This is a case where conscience and convenience cross paths, where dealing with this existential threat to the planet and increasing our economic growth and prosperity are one in the same, ” Biden said in a briefing prior to signing. He continued, “When I think of climate change… I think of jobs,” Climate Corps workers will “get paid to fight climate change, learning how to install those solar panels, fight wildfires, rebuild wetlands, weatherize homes, and so much more that’s going to protect the environment and build a clean energy economy.”
After finishing a term of service in the program, a graduate becomes eligible for a direct pathway to federal government jobs related to climate and clean energy. However, making those job opportunities an actual, permanent fixture might be easier said than done.
“It’s hard for career tech instructions in these green jobs and the education sector to move quickly. That’s the worry,” California Assembly member Steve Bennett (D-Ventura) said. “The challenge that we have is that the rate of change is increasing. What used to be technology in the last 40 or 50 years maybe only lasts 15 years. We need to have career training that also is able to adjust.”
Younger workers are putting pressure on their employers to take an active stance on climate change, and some are willing to switch jobs or industries due to environmental concerns about their workplace— and to hold businesses accountable for their sustainability policies. Roughly four out of five Gen Zers and Millenials said that the government ought to do more to encourage companies to address climate change and that businesses, in turn, could and should do more to enable consumers to make more sustainable purchasing decisions, according to a 2024 Deloitte study (79% of Gen-Zers and 81% of Millennials).
Asked about actions they had personally taken, respondents expressed that they are making eco-conscious decisions about consumption, such as avoiding brands involved in fast fashion, reducing air travel, eating a vegetarian or vegan diet, purchasing electric vehicles, or researching a company’s environmental impact and policies before buying their products or services.
“The younger generation is more focused on climate change because we have the rest of our lives ahead of us and have seen the effects of climate change worsening… I think the younger generation uses these effects as motivators rather than an ‘It is how it is’ attitude that I feel much of the older generation adopts,” Nicholson said.
Bennett agrees on the impact of the younger generation.
“It’s young people who are pushing older people: ‘No, you can’t keep getting those plastic bags.’ Young people are pushing older people to be more sensitive on the climate issue,” Bennett said.
Despite their enthusiasm for combating the climate crisis, Gen-Z continues to face opposition from climate change deniers and defeatist attitudes toward sustainability efforts. This tension leaves young people wondering whether studying environmentalism will be worthwhile and whether halting global warming is plausible.
When asked about these challenges, Bennett responded, “that’s what the question is. What’s politically doable? Something’s impossible until it’s not, because the whole system has to become more empathetic, from elementary school all the way.”
Zara Hai is a reporter with JCal, a collaboration between The Asian American Journalists Association and CalMatters to immerse high school students in California’s news industry.
